One of the best things I learned in Intuitive Eating is that mental restriction is almost as problematic as actual restriction. One of the hallmarks of intuitive eating is that restriction leads to bingeing. The more you restrict something the more you want it, this is the pendulum that defines diet culture.

I was one of the lucky few who had my own private office with a door so I was able to pump discreetly and on my own schedule…

But all of my efforts and meticulous planning could not withstand the impact of 9/11. I was in my office several blocks from the World Trade Center that day when the first plane hit.

Making time to eat a proper lunch daily has been challenging for me. I met with Glenys Oysten, an amazing Intuitive Eating/Health At Every Size (HAES) aligned nutritionist recently and one of my goals she and I came up with is to put lunch back on the table (pun intended).

One of the lessons in the movie is how restricting a talent can be if it is overused. By feeling labeled by a special power, these family members are unable to break out of their shell and ultimately their skill becomes a chore and an obligation and no longer feels like a blessing.

While taking a walk with our dogs, my friend Dave told me that he does his job with the perspective of “what if I got hit by a bus tomorrow?”. While I would never want Dave to get hit by a bus, I think this way of thinking is pretty healthy. It encourages him to make sure he is not the only one who knows how to do something, not to have secrets and try to do everything himself. What would happen in your workplace if you were hit by a bus tomorrow? Do your colleagues know what you are up to? Do they know where you keep things? How quickly could they jump in and keep things running in your absence?

One of the best ways to ensure your colleagues know what to do is to GO. ON. VACATION.

I was walking my dog this morning and practically jumped out of my skin when I saw something moving. Turns out the thing that was moving was me, or more accurately, my shadow. I chuckled for a moment as I thought of the phrase “scared of your own shadow”. I have long had anxiety, so jumping at my shadow should not have shocked me, but it did feel a bit over the top, so I took a minute and asked why. Why was I so jumpy? Then I realized I had just finished two cups of coffee while reading obsessively about the war in Ukraine. I was jumpy because I was internalizing the dangers in the world and I was feeling them strongly. I was feeling vulnerable and reactive.

Today when I did Wordle, my first word had zero correct letters. Clearly I thought I was doomed.

I recently watched a brief but powerful clip of a conversation with Tom Hanks and a group of famous actors. During the talk, Tom Hanks shares his philosophy that “this too shall pass”. He explains that during our highest highs and our lowest lows, this too shall pass. Nothing is permanent (watch the 2 minute video here). This way of thinking protects us from despair and arrogance. I appreciate the reminder of the impermanence of things. As someone who suffers from anxiety, I fall prey to the dangers of “permanence, pervasiveness and personalization”. If something bad is happening, I worry it will never end, that it is BIG and affects my whole life, and that it is my fault. These mind games are what exacerbate our suffering. And when you consider Tom’s advice, you can mistakenly use the three Ps when things are going well too. Your good luck will last forever, affect all areas of your life and you get all the credit. Believing this will only make the inevitable fall from grace more painful.

A goal I have for my business for 2022 is to do more deep work. I am so scattered these days. Jumping from one meme or one story or one tweet to the next. I want to focus on one non-fiction book at a time. Immerse myself in a topic. Learn and share, learn and share, learn and share. This is how I operate best. When the learning is in small tasters like memes and tweets, I don’t really absorb the information. I don’t find its depth. It’s a great dopamine rush, but it disappears as quickly as it came.

When I work with employees who work in a toxic environment, my goal is to help them survive their work--not necessarily succeed there. If a work environment is toxic, it is often impossible to succeed. Everything is designed to get in the way of your success. Instead, I focus on how to keep your sanity while working there and carve out time in your schedule to find a better job.

Keeping up with technology is challenging --especially for those of us who weren’t raised with the internet and social media. Many of us feel like technology is a second language. One that we are learning in adulthood. But we can learn new things. And we do have a foundation to build upon.

When my husband and I moved into our first house, I realized I wasn't happy with the flow. The dining room was in the middle of everything and it just seemed to be in the way. What I really wanted to do was move the dining room table out of the way and use the room more like a hallway, but I wasn’t sure I should do that. I didn’t know if that was “ok”. I brought in a decorator and she told me it was fine. We even moved the dining room table over together. Ahhh so I wasn’t crazy to want this. I paid her a lot of money just to validate my own suspicion, but it was worth it because my house felt better to me after that.

I started seeing a trainer, Mike Romano, six months ago. I love his approach to working out. He is all about purpose. He sees exercise as a means to an end. Exercise is so we can continue to do what we love doing in our regular life. Everything he and I do together is to support my movement in my day-to-day life.

One of my favorite stories of the benefits of connections in a job search is from a successful business owner. She tells the story of how she landed her first dream job straight out of a college due to a lucky introduction from her aunt. The story goes that her aunt began chatting with someone she had never met while on jury duty and as it turns out, the new friend was hiring in the field her niece was looking into. Her brilliant aunt immediately began talking to this individual about her fantastic niece and ultimately her niece began working there after graduation. How cool is that? I love this story because it reveals the power of connections. Her aunt did not work in her niece’s field, but she had the requisite information, adored her niece and had chutzpah. She was at the right place at the right time and jumped on it. Don’t we all need a friend or relative like that?

One of my favorite aspects of being a coach is watching someone get excited about a new goal they have chosen. The process of defining the goal and figuring out how to move forward is fun and rewarding. Whenever this happens I need to have my sabotage radar activated. Deciding to focus on an important goal or activity is exciting but it can also be scary. The goal can feel intimidating, you could be afraid of the commitment or you could be nervous about what success might mean to you. My job is to help you see when you are sabotaging your success, and this often looks like identifying an alternate (more doable) goal relatively soon after you chose your actual goal.

My family--parents, brother, sister, their spouses and kids and dogs-- recently got together for a week at the beach. There are too many micro-moments of connection to catalog, but here are a few that I witnessed and make me so happy

When trying on dresses for my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah, the employee who was helping me reminded me in no uncertain terms that I must wear Spanx. It was simply not an option. Feeling out of place in the world of fashion, I nodded my head blindly. “Whatever you say” was what it implied. I guess that is what women do, we wear Spanx when we dress up. It sounded uncomfortable, but who am I to judge?

Every year we go to the west coast of Florida for a family vacation to visit with family. All year, I anticipate my early morning visits to the local coffee shop. Walking to town with my laptop in a backpack to a favorite coffee shop, sitting outside in beautiful weather and alternating between working and daydreaming. For the 13 months stuck home during Covid, I thought about these coffee shop visits quite a lot.